


Heads Above Water

by Zoe_Dameron



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Fluff, I promise, Injury Recovery, M/M, Not Anymore, Nothing Hurts, Rehabilitation, Stormpilot, Swimming, Trust
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-28
Updated: 2017-10-28
Packaged: 2019-01-25 09:46:57
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,401
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12528564
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zoe_Dameron/pseuds/Zoe_Dameron
Summary: “Finn, hey,” he breathes out quietly, keeping his voice low. “Want to go on an adventure?”





	Heads Above Water

**Author's Note:**

  * For [imaginary_golux](https://archiveofourown.org/users/imaginary_golux/gifts).



> For the brilliant and lovely [imaginary_golux](https://archiveofourown.org/users/imaginary_golux/pseuds/imaginary_golux), whose incredible stories I've enjoyed since day one in this fandom. <3

The sound of someone crashing into a medical cart is what wakes him, and the soft, apologetic “ _kriff_ ” whispered in frustration near the entrance of the room keeps him from resigning himself back to sleep. He blinks his eyes open slowly at first, expecting to be flooded with light and the foot traffic of various harried med techs. Instead, it’s still dark.

He makes to sit up but Poe Dameron fills his vision, and his smiling, conspiratorial face is leaning over him before Finn even has the chance to adjust.

“Finn, hey,” he breathes out quietly, keeping his voice low. “Want to go on an adventure?”

“Poe Dameron? What are you –” Finn starts, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. He pushes himself up the back of the bed and finishes his sentence with an expression of clear confusion.

The pilot smiles brighter. “Come on. I’ll explain on the way.”

He reaches out both hands and Finn takes them without a second thought, still trying to catch up to whatever Poe is so excited about. The jacket lands in his lap before he makes it to his feet, and his fingers catch on the kind stitching trailing from the shoulder down the back.

He hasn’t seen it since he woke up. Tried not to spare too much thought on it, or if it had been lost on Starkiller. His first material possession, gifted to him in gratitude, torn and burned as Rey lay motionless in the snow, a flash of red and then ---

“Hey, _Big Deal_ ,” Poe whispers, reaching for Finn’s attention. “We doing this?”

Finn groans. “Rey told you?”

“She did.”

Finn rolls his eyes and throws the jacket around his shoulders. He’s almost surprised at how comfortable it makes him feel, something beyond the soft leather and lived-in warmth of the thing. _Something unquantifiable, maybe_ , he thinks to himself as Poe helps him in to the wheelchair he’s been using to get around between physical therapy sessions.

_Maybe not unquantifiable. Maybe just new._

They load his crutches onto the back and wheel their way to the hangar, pausing only once when Poe thinks he hears something.

“Poe, are we… does this count as ‘on the way’?” Finn asks, as politely as possible.

Behind him, the pilot mumbles something noncommittal.

“I mean, can you tell me what we’re doing yet? Are we stealing something? Is this… is this _crime_?”

Poe laughs quietly. “We’re not stealing anything. We’re _borrowing_ a ship, maybe,” he explains as he lowers the ramp of a small craft and pushes Finn and his chair into an open space beside the pilot’s seat. “And where we’re going, there’s a _small_ chance that I’d prefer if as few people as possible were aware of it.”

“…You’d better not be taking me to Jakku, Dameron. I swear.”

He hears Poe laugh again and finds himself drawn to the sound, wanting more. “Not Jakku. Promise.”

Finn doesn’t press the issue, and he permits Poe to help him to his feet long enough to seat himself in the co-pilot’s chair. Poe hovers briefly, hands open and action-ready, keeping a respectful distance but making sure Finn is fastened in tightly. Something at the edge of Finn’s mind warmly recalls the word ‘ _mom_ ’ before the emotion is snatched back into the dark corners the First Order created for those things.

He lays against the soft padding of the chair and lets his eyes close while he catches his breath, frustrated and exhausted from the exertion of trying to force his legs to cooperate. He doesn’t even notice they’re in the sky until the familiar dull jerk to light speed.

 _One hell of a pilot,_ he muses.

The stars pass by in streaks and Finn allows himself to relax enough to be hypnotized by the beauty of it. From the corner of his eye he can see Poe looking over at him.

“Stormtrooper transports,” he says to Poe as he watches the stars, “they didn’t have windows. All my other time up here has been, I don’t know, _escaping_. Or rushing. Not like this. Nothing as nice as this.”

Finn expects a smile, but the pilot looks down and away, shaking his head. “Those sons of bitches. Kriffing First Order bastards.” He turns back and lays a respectful hand on Finn’s thigh. “You can rest, Finn. I’ll let you know when we’re there.”

Pulling his arms into the jacket sleeves and wrapping them tightly around himself, Finn nods back.

Poe remains silent until they fall out of hyperspace and he lets out a small “whoop!” of excitement that Finn guesses happens in private more often than not.

The planet ahead of them is a gorgeous shade of teal, greens and blues of land and water mixing together so closely that it’s hard to get a handle on which is which. Thankfully, the pilot seems to know exactly where to land, and they set down effortlessly in a lush field at the edge of a grand city.

Poe patiently helps Finn back into his chair and down the ramp.

“Just – I’ll be right back, okay? Hang tight,” he tells Finn as he locks up their ship and jogs over to a small patch of trees a couple dozen meters away from their location. There’s a silhouette ahead, waiting, but Finn can’t make out anything specific about who they might be.

It’s night on this planet too, or something close to a late dusk. Finn wonders what the planet’s name is as he watches a few tiny ships fly in and out of the distant glowing city that seems perched on the edge of a waterfall. He mindlessly rubs the left sleeve of his jacket between his fingers as he waits.

He’s nearly asleep again by the time Poe returns, and he shakes his head a bit to wake himself up.

“We’re clear,” Poe huffs out excitedly as he jogs back, nearly out of breath.

“Clear for what?”

Poe laughs to himself. “You’ll see.”

As he’s wheeled away from the city and into a thicket of trees, Finn catches a glimpse of a tall, pale creature with long drawn-back ears and segmented eyes watching them from the shadows of where he had, as Finn assumes, met Poe.

“Was that who you were talking to? Who is that?” he asks, leaning back to look up at the pilot as they make their way deeper into the wood.

“Mmmm,” he gets in reply.

“Listen, Dameron,” Finn begins, edging on annoyance, “I appreciate surprises. I mean, I probably do. But we barely know each other, and –“

“Mmmm,” Poe agrees, teasingly cutting him off. “That’s true. Been a damn shame you’ve been sleeping for so long. Valuable getting-to-know-each-other time, just wasted.”

Finn scowls. “So –“

“Do you trust me, Finn?” Poe’s voice is softer now, less playful.

He takes a minute to think about it before he replies. “Yeah. Yeah, I guess I trust you more than almost anyone, actually.” It’s a comforting realization, and he feels some of the tension slip from his muscles.

“Good.”

Finn fidgets slightly as Poe leads him deeper into the woods, and he kneads the muscles of each thigh to work out the numbness that sometimes creeps into them. After what seems like a minor eternity, the trees part on either side of them, opening up to a small natural spring. The water is off-pink in a way that Finn has trouble focusing on, like the color shifts before he can find the word for the shade. A thin ring of light blue sand surrounds the spring, and above the sand sits a light layer of mist.

Poe stops, and Finn can practically feel him vibrating with excitement.

“We made it.”

“Poe, what –“ Finn begins, not sure what he wants to ask.

The pilot steps in front of Finn and reaches out his hand, helping him stand steady with a crutch under each arm. When Poe can tell Finn has found his balance, he begins to undress, throwing his dark brown leather jacket into the grass and unzipping his pants, letting them fall as he steps out of them.

He’s down to his boxer-briefs when he finally turns back to Finn, who is trying and failing to hide the blush of his cheeks.

“I probably should’ve made sure you wear underwear before this point,” Poe begins, “but you can use mine if you don’t have any. Do you need help? With the crutches, I mean.”

Finn blinks, slowly, his incredulity clear.

Poe smiles. “You said you trust me, Finn.”

“I did say that, didn’t I.” He sighs. “Alright, help me with this.”

Finn steadies himself with a hand on Poe’s shoulder as he undresses down to his Resistance-issued grey briefs, pausing occasionally to throw a teasing glare Poe’s way.

And then they’re both standing there, in the dark, in their underwear, not another soul for miles in any direction. Finn wants to be annoyed but can’t find the resolve within himself to follow through on it. Poe promised him an adventure, after all, and this sure beats feeling badly about himself in the medcenter.

The two hobble over to the edge of the spring, with Finn leaning most of his weight on Dameron’s arm wrapped around his waist. His feet sink in the surprisingly warm sand and he practically moans at how nice it feels.

“Ready?”

Finn looks over at Poe and tries to ignore the fluttering in his chest at the closeness of their faces. “For…?”

Poe leans forward, dipping his foot into the shallow water. Finn watches in amazement as the water around him lights up, glowing brightly as a million tiny specs flood forward and wrap themselves around every patch of submerged skin.

“You’ve heard of bacta?” Poe asks, smile wider than a Star Destroyer. “This is where it comes from.”

Finn doesn’t even notice his own jaw hanging slack in surprise. “No way.”

Poe nods. “ _Way_.”

Finn lets go of the pilot, straining and willing all of his muscles to cooperate long enough to manage the small task of standing on his own. He takes a step forward, wavering on unsteady feet and reaching out for Poe’s waiting hand, grasping it tightly as he moves.

The glowing specs feel like nothing and somehow so much at the same time, tickling beneath the skin without breaking it. He looks to Poe for reassurance and Poe nods again, helping him work his way into the water. He lets go of Poe’s hand when he’s up to his neck, feeling confident that Poe would be there to help if anything were to go wrong. The water around him is brilliant now, almost too bright, bright enough to make him squint when he looks down.

He feels the specs paying special attention to the space carved between his shoulder blades. It’s feather-light and soothing, like a warm breath exhaled down his spine.

“How’s it… how, uh, does it feel?” Poe asks, effortlessly treading water next to him.

Finn moans and Poe laughs.

“Yeah, that’s what I hoped you’d say,” he continues. “Didn’t want to ruin the surprise. Hope you’ll find it in your heart to forgive me someday.”

Finn looks down at his own body in the water, glowing brightly, and he finally notices the numbness in his legs is gone. He kicks out a bit and his legs react like they’re supposed to. No delayed response. No pain.

“How did you find this place, Poe?” he finally asks as he moves a bit deeper toward the middle of the spring, confident in his ability to stay afloat.

Poe follows him but keeps a respectful distance. “Old Gungan secret. Had a Gungan buddy in the New Republic Flight Academy. Helped talk him through pulling out of a total nosedive and he was so grateful he told me to look him up if it was ever important enough. I’ve never been here myself, actually.”

“Was that who you were speaking with where we landed?”

“Mmmm. Yep.”

Finn looks over at him. “Important enough?”

Poe sighs, staring up at the stars. “We both had friends in the Hosnian System. They had no warning. Never had a chance to get out. I told him about you, and how you helped us take down the weapon. We’re all grateful, Finn. This is the least we could do.”

The two float on in silence for a beat before Finn swims over to where Poe is and wraps his arms around him. Poe doesn’t hesitate to return the embrace, burying his face in Finn’s neck. Finn leans in to the hug and he smiles at the way Poe’s curls tickle his cheek.

“So, is it working?” Poe’s voice is muffled against Finn’s neck and Finn loves how ridiculous he sounds.

“Let’s see,” he replies, swimming to the shore and marching confidently up onto the sand. He stretches his arms out and bends down to touch his toes, then lunges forward and throws in a small hop for good measure. From the spring, Poe barks out a laugh and throws a fist in the air.

“Hell yeah, Finn! Nice!”

Finn sinks back into the water and lifts his toes up until he’s floating on his back. He pushes himself over to Poe who places a soft kiss on his forehead before floating up to join him. The two stare at the stars hanging in the clear sky above them before Poe finally breaks the quiet.

“I barely know you, Finn, that’s true. But, I’d like to know you. I’d like to know everything about you.”

“There’s not much to know.”

Poe looks over at Finn warmly. “Oh, I don’t believe that for a minute.”

“How long do we have?” Finn asks, returning Poe’s gaze.

“I told the General we’d be back before debrief at 0700, so a few more hours before we need to start making our way to the ship.”

Finn exhales, letting his muscles relax completely as he floats. He lets his arms drift out to his sides and smiles when he feels Poe’s hand bump against his, cautiously at first before Finn reaches out and their fingers intertwine. He looks over at the way the bacta specs glow and dance between them, and he realizes he’s never felt this comfortable in his entire life.

He stretches his legs out and smiles.

“Alright, Poe. Let’s get to know each other.”

**Author's Note:**

> I'd read somewhere at sometime that bacta was a living creature, like yeast, and that it was farmed to create the lovely pink goo our heroes use to feel better. May not be canon, but I'm using it. <3


End file.
